Why Going Back to School Changed my Perspective

   I headed back to school in September of this year, Camosun College to do my Post Degree Diploma in Advanced Hospitality and Tourism Management. An extension and diversification of what I already do as a hospitality professional, many people questioned the reasoning to going back to school to learn what I already know and that made me question as to why I was cutting down my hours at Pagliacci’s to head into a classroom with predominantly international twenty somethings. But as this first term starts to wrap up, I am reflective on my studies and how this experience changed my perspective.

               I am not going to paint you a picture of sunshine and rainbows, this has been a challenge and one that I have been grateful of every step of the way. I went into this cocky, over confident that I was going back to just reinforce and quantify what I already knew. But after the first month, I realised that every class for every subject was different and, in that difference, kept me on my toes. Sometimes I would know 85% of the study matter and then the next week in the same class I would be scrambling to keep up. Human Resources threw me a curve ball, Hotel Operations was more intense than expected and Cross-Cultural Leadership made me question my core beliefs and values. But while I jostled to be the best, something in my brain fired and slowly I adapted to this new academic environment.

               Adapting to the school load but also changing my perspective on how to deal with people much younger than myself in a new dynamic. I am experienced in managing people of different ages and cultures but the dichotomy of it was from a top down mentality and not coexistence. Learning curve aside, the different culturally backgrounds along with the individualistic nature of international students was a learning experience in itself. The greatest example of this was my discovery of IST or Indian Stretchable Time and how linear time in western culture does not exist within theirs; for someone that was as fastidious with time as I am, this was a huge learning curve and one that eventually had me offering rides to my fellow students who were perpetually late.

               Education is eternal, an ongoing and necessary growth tool that makes us all better professionals, whether academically, culturally or personal. If I was told I would go on this academic journey 2 years ago, I would have laughed. It has forced me to become a better writer, be more organised, inspired to learn more (I am taking my Certified Spirits Specialist in 2019) and shape the future outside of your normal comfort zone. I attest to professionals in ay industry but especially the hospitality and tourism sector to always be looking at learning more and growing as a professional seeking inner happiness.